THE QUACQUARELLI Symonds (QS) Global University Rankings released their 2016 results showing Ateneo on the 501st spot of overall global university rankings on March 22.
For the past four years the Ateneo has been following a downward trend in ranking from 451st spot on 2012 to the 501st on 2013 followed by a 461st rank on 2014.
The QS rankings serve as a basis of comparison among universities all over the world, housing 800 top universities worldwide based on competency in research, teaching, employability and internationalization.
QS rankings are based on a set of criteria where academic reputation holds the highest percentage of 40%, employer reputation for 10%, Student-to-faculty ratio and citations per faculty each with 20% and international faculty and student ratio with 5% each.
Further categories include specific subjects such as English Language and Literature, and faculty, in the Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences and Management departments.
For English Language and Literature, the Ateneo ranked 51st on 2013, however, it descended to the 101st spot on 2015 and 151st on 2016.
For faculty on the other hand, Ateneo ranked 263rd on 2014 and 309th on 2015 for the Arts and Humanities Department and for the Social Sciences and Management Department, placed 274th on 2014 and 365th on 2015.
Outnumbered
Assistant to the Vice President of University and Global Relations Teresa Santos explained that the drop in rankings is due to the increased number of competing universities abroad, hence not traced to a deficiency in the academic system and deliverance of the Ateneo.
“More and more universities around the world have participated in these ranking exercises, basically by submitting data, and so it has become increasingly competitive,” Santos stated.
Among the categories that make up the rank, the university scored the lowest percentage of 32.8% out of 100 in academic reputation, to which Vice President of the Loyola Schools John Paul Vergara, PhD argues is a limiting measure for a global ranking.
“It becomes very limiting because resources come into play, if you are a developed country they tend to be more known like how would you ever beat Harvard or [National University of Singapore], [Massachusetts’s Institute of Technology] or so on,” he commented.
Santos added that other countries have consolidated their efforts to improving internationalization, resulting to a decline in rankings for Philippine universities.
“There is a concerted effort in some countries, for instance, like Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Korea and China to try and internationalize their higher educational systems,” Santos explained.
Higher standards
Vergara mused that despite the drop in rankings, the Ateneo has seen growth in terms of externalization and internationalization, which would possibly lead to a boost in reputation.
Meanwhile Santos stated that the thrusts of the university for this school year revolved around internationalization and research which were tackled by reforms and programs such as dual degree formats, more collaborations with university partners, and the academic calendar shift.
Due to the calendar shift, the university was able to accommodate more students and faculty, both inbound and outbound exchange students, elevating degree programs to an international standard.
To continue the progress of internationalization, Vergara said that the university has been expending effort to have more mobility in terms of exchange faculty, both inbound and outbound.
He contends that the Ateneo’s increasing advantage in internationalization acts as an effective leverage to surpass competitors and encourages maximum returns such as diversity, rankings and reputation.
“It is something that is really beneficial. It provides diversity, it provides exposure. We’re now moving towards internationalizing at the level of degree programs as well,” Vergara said.
Flaws and opportunities
According to Vergara, the university endeavors to improve efforts in research, as it proves to be a category where Philippine universities lack the most, in comparison to competing global institutions.
“As a country and I mean [talking about] all other universities here, we’re not doing that well but we don’t say we’re defeated na, we just continue doing it and [making] sure everything that we do [is] consistent with our mission,” he stated.
Nevertheless, Vergara commends the Ateneo for its continuous effort in implementing research programs and providing opportunities for faculty and students to pursue further studies.
He said that “the research universities abroad are better but relatively, if we talk about the papers that we publish in index journals, compare us from six to seven years ago, we’ve more than tripled.”
School of Humanities Dean Maria Luz Vilches, PhD shared that the university created a research and creative work track, which permits a professor to teach only six units per year to allow room for pursuing two big research projects possibly resulting to books or article publications.
She also believes that the programs and grants implemented in the departments serve a more significant purpose beyond increasing ranks and improving the reputation of the university.
“We in the Ateneo strive for excellence in whatever we do, not necessarily because we want to raise our rank among other universities in the world but because we know that doing excellent work is the way to go for any university that genuinely wants to carry out its mission for its students and the society as a whole,” she said.
